Vice premier Zhang Gaoli said in a speech that China will “make greater effort to more effectively address climate change”. He said China will announce post-2020 actions on climate change “as soon as we can” and that these would include “marked progress in reducing carbon intensity” and “the peaking of total carbon dioxide emissions as early as possible”.

Li Shuo Greenpeace senior climate and energy policy officer said that it is the first time such a high-ranking Chinese government member mentioned a peak emissions target. He said it is likely that the Chinese government will give a clear indication of when the peak will be reached ahead of the UN climate change talks in Paris next year.

He said that China’s stance has changed from a few years ago. “Five years after Copenhagen, China is in a vastly different position. Domestic air pollution is forcing the country to embark on a new path away from coal and 2014 saw the lowest coal consumption growth in a decade,” he said.

However, China has set ambitious targets domestically to cut coal use as part of its efforts to deal with its air pollution problems. Many of China’s cities suffer regularly from dangerously high levels of air pollution, as seen last winter during the ‘airpocalypse’ that hit the capital Beijing and a number of other cities.

Twelve of China’s 44 provinces, which account for 44% of China’s coal consumption, have pledged to control their coal consumption. Six have included absolute coal consumption targets in their action plans. Premier Zhang reiterated a recent plan announced by China to cut carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020 from 2005 levels.

While coal still dominates China’s energy mix, the country is is also rapidly developing its renewable energy capabilities including solar, wind and nuclear. The government has set an ambitious target to increase hydro-generation capacity by half before 2020 while fracking is also in the early stages of development.

According to figures from the Global Carbon Project, an international research effort that tracks emissions, while China’s emissions are still growing, the rate of growth is slowing. Last year China’s total emissions grew 2.3%, which is lower than the average yearly growth of the past decade of 2.5% a year. While this may be due in part to China’s slowing economy, it could also be a signal that China’s action on air pollution is starting to have an impact.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibility is of importance to China and premier Zhang reiterated this in his speech by saying this principle “must be upheld in the negotiations and final outcome of the 2015 agreement”. China has argued that it should take on less of a burden of emissions cuts than developed countries because it bears less responsibility for the carbon that has entered the atmosphere since the industrial revolution.

An opinion piece carried in the state news agency Xinhua yesterday outlined China’s stance on the principle: “we can not put aside the past when we look into the future. The carbon dioxide currently in the atmosphere was mostly produced during the industrialised process of the developed countries”.

At the summit, vice premier Zhang also pledged $6m to support south-south cooperation on climate change and said China will double its annual financial support for the established south-south co-operation fund on climate change.

In his speech at the summit, US President Barack Obama said that the US and China have responsibility to lead other nations on climate change. Li Shuo of Greenpeace said this points to a changing dynamic between the two countries on the issue. He said he expects some announcements from the two countries on climate change after the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Beijing in November when President Obama will meet Chinese premier Xi Jinping.